How the UK recycles millions of dirty old disposable coffee cups

Here's why the blue LED deserves a Nobel Prize

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2014 to three physicists responsible for creating the blue LED.

If you're ever come across an LED -- which is highly likely, as you probably have at least some in your home -- you might be wondering exactly what is so special about blue LEDs in particular. The answer lies in the official wording of the award, which goes something like: Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura were presented with the prize "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources".

Advertisement

It is therefore not the blue LED in itself that is remarkable; rather it is the subsequent technology enabled by the blue LED that makes it "an invention of greatest benefit to mankind" -- the criteria used to judge whether something is eligible for a Nobel Prize. By using blue LEDs, researchers were able to create white light in a new way, meaning that we now have more long-lasting and efficient alternative light sources.

While red and green diodes had been around for a while, in the early 1990s Akasaki, Hiroshi and Nakamura pioneered the ability to drawn blue light from semi-conductors. When combined with the existing red and green diodes, this blue light made the colour palette totally white. "Their inventions were revolutionary.

Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps," says a statement on the Nobel Prize website. Creating a blue LED to make white light with was something that scientists has been attempting to achieve -- with no success -- for three decades.

Ever since their invention, LED lamps that emit a bright, white light have been getting more common, but also more energy efficient as the technology is refined and they are capable of offering more lumens per watt. While the blue LED has already changed the way we create white light, the efficiency factor is where the LED will make a real difference. The low power required to run LEDs means that the technology could have a huge impact around the world for the 1.5 million people who lack access to electricity grids.